Hi all. I’m visiting Japan for the first time on my own next week and I just wanted to post my itinerary to see if there’s any big problems or reconsiderations I should make. I’ve tried to keep it fairly light because I don’t know my limits for how much I can do in a day and don’t want to panic about missing stuff I thought I’d have time for. I’m aware that some days seem empty so I’d really appreciate any suggestions for extra places/ideas in Kyoto as well as general evening suggestions since I don’t really drink or club/party.
I’d also appreciate any advice to help avoid getting overwhelmed and procrastinating in a hotel instead of just getting up and going out. I’ve been waiting for this trip for a long time and I feel like there’s a massive responsibility to make this worth it for myself which is making it hard to relax. A big thanks in advance to anyone who reads this!
**Tokyo:**
**Day 0** \- Flight to Haneda lands 6PM, might pick up my JR pass if it’s not too busy otherwise save for another day, take the monorail and check in to hotel. Possibly a short walk to Tokyo tower from my hotel if I’m not too tired.
**Day 1** \- Spend time around Ueno in the morning/early afternoon (park, zoo, national museum etc.) then Akihabara in the afternoon/evening.
**Day 2** \- Asakusa + surrounding tourist spots then move on to Sumida park to see if there’s any cherry blossoms. Maybe Tokyo Skytree after that – not sure how much this all takes so nothing planned for later on.
**Day 3** \- Yoyogi park, Meiji Jingu, Shibuya/Harajuku for most of the day. Meeting a friend in the area for the evening.
**Day 4** \- Tsukiji outer market, TeamLabs, Diver City, Gundam statue then move onto the area near Imperial palace afterwards. Nothing planned in the evening.
**Day 5** \- Going to Meguro, have a reservation at the Mipig cafe and would like to see the area around the river. Will need to return to the hotel fairly early to pack and sleep for my flight the next day.
**Fukuoka:**
**Day 6** \- Flying to Fukuoka in the morning, seeing BAND MAID in the afternoon and will see if I’m able to hear anything before I think about what to do after that. I was suggested by somebody to try motsunabe whilst in Fukuoka so maybe that’s something to aim for.
**Day 7** \- I think I need to decide between wandering around Fukuoka + visiting some parks (Ohori/Nishi park) or going to Dazaifu Tenmangu. I need to get the shinkansen to Kyoto in the afternoon which will take 3-4 hours and I doubt I have time for everything.
**Kyoto**:
**Day 8** \- A colleague suggested a walk going from Kiyomizu dera > Yasaka jinja > Gion > Pontoncho. I like the idea a lot and would like to try it. I suspect it’s a lot of walking so I allocated a day for this.
**Day 9** \- If the previous day wasn’t too bad on my feet then a day trip to Arashiyama, otherwise either a laid back rest day and Arashiyama the day after.
**Day 10** \- More Kyoto exploring including Fushimi Inari and the surrounding area, or Arashiyama depending on above.
**Day 11** \- Day trip to Hiroshima
**Day 12** \- Day trip to Osaka
**Day 13** \- Nishiki Market, Kyoto National Garden, Nijo castle (maybe not in that order?) and more exploring afterwards
**Day 14** \- Day trip to Nara
**Day 15 -** Return to Tokyo, either morning or afternoon depending how I feel
**Tokyo:**
**Days 16 & 17** \- Might feel tired by this point so I may just do some shopping and revisiting areas from earlier in my trip. If not then I may look into a Hakone day trip or visiting Nakano broadway.
**Day 18** \- Check out of hotel and get to the airport, fly home at 10AM.
That’s about it, any input or advice welcomed. Thanks once again if you read this!
7 comments
Day 2: Asakusa and Sumida sounds like a half day to me. Depends on your travel style you might be able to stretch it out if you can spend a while checking out the various shops in Asakusa.
Day 8: Same thing. I don’t think this will take you the entire day. It’s about a 20-30 minute walk from Kiyomizudera to Yasaka without stopping, and like 10 minutes to Pontocho from Yasaka.
Go to Tonki in Meguro, best restaurant experience I’ve had here.
Also akihabara on Sunday is nice they close up the streets to cars and people walk on the
streets.
Look up events/festivals on Google for your cities/days, it will make for a unique experience.
Look up the Michelin guide (you can get plenty of 1 star Michelin meals for 1-2k yen all around Japan)
Keep the itinerary flexible and have fun!
I agree day 8 is not a lot of walking, they’re all in the same neighbourhood except Pontocho which is like 15 minutes away. But you can pad out your time in this neighbourhood, add Kodaiji, Chion-in, Shogunzuka Seiryuden, Maruyama Park (nice cafes there!). Depending on how early your day starts you can check out Nishiki before walking to Pontocho. But Gion/Higashiyama is my fav area and imo I could spend the whole day there.
Others places I’d like to recommend are Ginkakuji and Philosophers Path, if you have time follow the path down to Nanzenji and Heian Jinja.
Any reason your not stopping off in Hiroshima on the way from Fukuoka to Kyoto? This would give you more time in Fukuoka as it’s a shorter train ride to Hiroshima. If I were you, I’d:
– Day 7: Spend all day in Fukuoka to not be rushed. Take evening Shinkansen to Hiroshima and spend the night there in a hotel right by the station.
– Day 8: Checkout early and ask hotel to hold/store your luggage for the day. Use the [Hiroshima Sightseeing Loop Bus (included with JR Pass)](https://m.jrpass.com/blog/using-the-jr-pass-on-the-hiroshima-sightseeing-city-bus) to spend the day sightseeing around Hiroshima. Just check opening times of where you want to go so you don’t get there too early.
– Day 8 Evening: Take Shinkansen to Kyoto and hotel checkin.
Then do your Kyoto/Osaka/Nara days and you won’t have to backtrack to Hiroshima.
Hiroshima is almost halfway between Fukuoka and Kyoto so you could take an early train from Fukuoka one day later and spend half a day in Hiroshima before continuing on.
Would save you about 4 hours of train travel plus costs if you are not using the rail pass.
For Kyoto, weekends are a lot busier so maybe try do the more popular spots on weekdays if possible.
Day 4 looks too rushed for me. Imperial Palace might get squeezed out. I did teamLabs, Miraikan Museum and Gundam statue (plus food court dinner and shopping at DiverCity) in one day and that was more than enough to keep us busy. That area (Odaiba) is a bit isolated from the rest of Tokyo and it took us an hour to get to teamLabs from our hotel near Akihabara station.
No suggestions since it’ll be my first time also but I’ll also be at the band maid concert! Super excited for it